hypoh

[GoodAssSub @GoodAssSub]

"IF YOU LOVE SOMEBODY TONIGHT HOLD ON REAL TIGHT"

WATCH THE THRONE TOUR (2011)

[Skitzo @theskitzo_]

“Runaway” full

[Tesla @Tesla]

Weird, we were told this would never work

[Ming @tslaming]

WHO IS TOM ZHU? 👀

Here's the story of the IRON GENERAL behind the ART OF TESLA SPEED ⚡️

In the spring of 2022, Shanghai fell silent. A severe COVID-19 lockdown had paralyzed one of the world’s busiest cities. Factories shuttered, ports froze, and supply chains snapped. For most automotive executives, this was a moment to retreat to Zoom calls and wait for the storm to pass.

For Tom Zhu, it was a call to arms.

Zhu, then the head of Tesla China, didn't go home. Instead, he implemented a "closed-loop" system at the Gigafactory in Lingang. For over two months, Zhu slept on the factory floor alongside thousands of his workers. They shared the same bucket showers, ate the same rationed meals, and worked 12-hour shifts in total isolation from the outside world.

While other automakers flatlined, Zhu’s army kept the assembly lines humming, eventually delivering over 710,000 vehicles that year—more than half of Tesla’s global output.

This story defines Tom Zhu (Zhu Xiaotong, Simplified Chinese: 朱晓彤).

He is not a traditional executive in a tailored suit; he is a field commander in a fleece jacket. While Elon Musk provides the vision from the stratosphere, Tom Zhu is the man on the ground, trudging through the mud to make it real.

🌍 THE OUTSIDER: SANDSTORMS AND STEEL

To understand why a global executive would choose to sleep on concrete, you have to look back before Tesla—to the dust of the African savannah.

Born in Shenyang, China, Zhu’s path to the pinnacle of the EV world was anything but direct. After earning an MBA from Duke University, he didn't head to the comfort of Wall Street or Silicon Valley. He went to Sudan.

As a project manager for Kaibo Engineering, Zhu oversaw massive infrastructure projects in some of the most hostile operating environments on Earth. He managed a $500 million irrigation project in Sudan and a $162 million railway project in Nigeria. He dealt with blinding sandstorms, supply shortages, and cross-cultural chaos daily.

He learned a simple, brutal lesson: excuses don’t build bridges. This "muddy boots" philosophy made him an outlier when he applied to Tesla in 2014. He had zero automotive experience. But Elon Musk wasn't looking for a car guy; he was looking for someone who could get things done when the odds were zero.

🔌 THE FIREMAN: THE PURGE OF 2014

Zhu joined Tesla in April 2014, initially tasked with a single, difficult job: building the Supercharger network. At the time, Tesla’s entry into China was a disaster. "Charging anxiety" was killing sales, and the company was bleeding credibility.

While his colleague Robin Ren (the diplomat) navigated the halls of government, Zhu was on the streets. He approached the charging network with military precision, personally negotiating with property managers in malls and hotels, often overseeing installations in the dead of night.

The turning point came in December 2014. Tesla’s China sales were in freefall, and the organization was in chaos. In a sudden and ruthless purge, the high-profile China President, Veronica Wu, resigned after just nine months.

Musk needed a wartime leader. He bypassed the traditional candidates and handed the keys to the entire China operation to the man who was building the charging stations. Zhu accepted the role and immediately cut the fluff, focusing entirely on execution.

🏭 THE MIRACLE OF LINGANG: THE 10-MONTH WAR

Zhu’s defining moment—and the feat that saved Tesla from financial ruin—came in 2018. Tesla had secured the rights to build a factory in Shanghai. The timeline Musk demanded was widely considered a hallucination: transform a muddy field in Lingang into a world-class vehicle factory in under a year.

Zhu moved to the front lines. He rented a small, government-subsidized apartment (gongzufang) just 10 minutes from the construction site. The rent was less than 2,000 yuan ($300) a month. He didn't do it to save money; he did it so he could be the first one on-site at 6:00 AM and the last one to leave after midnight.

Staff recall seeing him constantly in his signature attire: a buzz cut, a standard-issue Tesla visibility vest, and safety boots. There were no separate executive cafeterias. If there was a problem with the welding line at 3:00 AM, Zhu was there.

Under his "24/7" watch, the miracle happened:
- January 2019: The site was a field of dirt.
- October 2019: The first trial cars rolled off the line.

In just 10 months, Zhu had built a Gigafactory. It was a feat of manufacturing engineering that "China Speed" had never seen before. Giga Shanghai quickly became Tesla’s "cash cow," producing cars with higher margins and quality than the US plants.

🌐 THE INVASION: THE "ZHU PLATOON" IN TEXAS

By late 2022, Elon Musk realized that the efficiency in Shanghai wasn't just a local anomaly—it was a culture that needed to be exported. Tesla's factories in Austin (Texas) and Berlin (Germany) were bleeding money and struggling to ramp up production of the Model Y and Cybertruck.

Musk didn't hire a consultant. He flew Tom Zhu to Austin.

Zhu arrived in Texas with a cadre of his most loyal lieutenants from Shanghai—the "Zhu Platoon." In a scene of stark cultural contrast, Zhu’s team appeared on the factory floors of Giga Texas wearing their Chinese visibility vests, ready to instill the discipline of Lingang into the heart of America.

In April 2023, the former project manager who built railways in Nigeria was named Senior Vice President of Automotive, effectively becoming the global No. 2, second only to Musk.

⚔️ THE TWIST: THE GENERAL RETURNS TO THE FRONT (2024)

However, the story didn't end with a comfortable office in Austin. By mid-2024, the war in China had intensified. Domestic rivals like BYD and the newly launched Xiaomi SU7 were aggressively eating into Tesla’s market share.

True to his character, Zhu didn't stay in the safety of the global headquarters. In May 2024, reports confirmed that Zhu had returned to Shanghai to resume direct control.

He didn't come back to relax. Zhu immediately launched a counter-offensive:
- The rural push: He initiated a strategy to "sink" sales channels into lower-tier Chinese cities to find new growth.
- The sales purge: He oversaw a massive reorganization of the sales team, cutting inefficiencies with the same ruthlessness he showed in 2014.

It wasn't a demotion; it was a redeployment. The General was needed back at the most critical front of the EV war.

🏟️ CONCLUSION: THE MAN IN THE ARENA

Tom Zhu represents the duality of Tesla’s success. If Elon Musk is the chaotic, visionary mind that dreams of Mars, Tom Zhu is the iron hand that builds the rocket.

He is a man who prefers the noise of the factory floor to the quiet of the boardroom. He conquered the Savannahs of Africa, the bureaucracy of China, and the manufacturing hell of the 21st century.

In a rare interview, when asked about his work-life balance, Zhu simply pointed out that he doesn't have a family or a house to distract him.

"I am not just working for a job," he once told his team during the darkest days of the Shanghai ramp-up. "I am working for a mission."

For Tesla, Robin Ren was the Diplomat who unlocked the door, but Tom Zhu was the General who walked through it, slept on the floor, and built the empire.

[Ming @tslaming]

BREAKING 🚨 TESLA IS PLACING A MASSIVE BET ON TOM ZHU TO DRIVE ITS NEXT ERA OF GROWTH 🚀

In a move that screams confidence, the company just handed its SVP over 520,000 stock options. This isn't just a standard refresh; it’s a clear signal that Tom is indispensable to Tesla's future roadmap and execution.

The terms are aggressive and bullish. With a strike price of $435.80, these options are a pure bet on performance—Tom only wins if Tesla stock tears higher. It puts his skin directly in the game alongside shareholders, incentivizing him to drive the company's value significantly upward over the coming years.

Crucially, this secures Tesla's key operator for the long haul. The "golden handcuffs" are tight, with a vesting schedule that runs all the way through 2031. Tom isn't just here for a quick stint; he is locked in to build, execute, and scale Tesla well into the next decade.

[hypoh @hypoh]

@kiikoblak magic

[KIIKO BLAK @kiikoblak]

🚨 Just finished something special 🚨

Make your own sympathetic magic with this Tom Sachs-inspired handwritten font. Feedback welcome!

I’ll send it to you FREE:
1️⃣ Like this post ❤️
2️⃣ Retweet 🔁
3️⃣ Follow me 👤

I’ll DM you the download.

@tom_sachs #isru #nikecraft

[Tesla @Tesla]

🤖🚕

[Friends and Family @FNFcommunity_]

What an absolute COOK on Walmart x Pokemon Super Premiums!!!!!!!!

No doubt we bought over 20,000 of those if not 30,000 of the ~ 41,000

Go away sheep. Go. Away.

[Kyan @Kyantweets]

Everybody Hates Elon Musk:

- The Russians hate him because he sent Starlink to Ukraine
- The Ukrainians hate him because he followed a US government order to limit Starlink to within Ukrainian borders.
- They both hate him for wanting peace.

- The Israelis hate him for sending Starlink to Gaza and challenging the ADF.
- The Palestinians hate him for supporting Israel.
- They both hate him for wanting peace.

- The Right hates him for voting Obama, making electric cars and solar panels.
- The Left hates him for supporting Trump, fighting the woke mind virus, and enforcing the borders.
- They both hate him for being a moderate.

- Europe hates him for being a capitalist.
- Capitalists hate him for being the best and disrupting their businesses.

- Europe hates him for promoting stronger borders to prevent Islamic displacement of Europe.
- Islamic people hate him for the same exact thing.

- The world hates him for saving free speech and somehow also killing democracy.

It's wild really, this list can go on and on, and it's because Elon Musk is a moderate in a world where extremists are loudest. But it's okay, if the Trump election proved anything, it's that moderates are still the silent majority.

Anyway, Elon will drag all sides kicking and screaming into the future. They can hate him as Tesla solves all their earthly desires. They can hate him as SpaceX guarantees their future. They can hate him as Optimus ends scarcity and feeds them gourmet food while massaging their feet.

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." -- Winston Churchill. Possibly nobody in history fits this quote better than Elon.

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

Did anyone accuse President Macron of being a Nazi?

[Ari Hoffman @thehoffather]

Video 1 is Elon Musk talking about why he wears a necklace everyday for the Jewish hostages

Video 2 is AOC supporting their captors

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

At ~5000 tons, Starship is the largest flying object ever made

[Simpiens @simpiensnft]

To all the VC and other projects simping over Simpiens in our DMs,the only way to have early access is thru @FomoMofoNFT

We are not sellouts🙈🙉🙊

[hypoh @hypoh]

#HuluHasMovies #Sweepstakes @hulu

[Dan Ives @DivesTech]

In a nutshell, we view Tesla where Apple was in the 2008/2009 period as Cupertino was just starting to monetize its services and golden ecosystem with the Street not seeing the broader golden vision at the time. Raising price target to $350 on sum-of-the-parts valuation. ♟️🏆🌊

[nikhil tayal @Alloutnikhil]

The now infamous "Crook's Corner" FSD blowing over stop sign "saga" video of Dan/ Ross that the fake news media and TSLAQ is getting off on doesn't tell the full accurate story. To make things personal my sister read this on fake news media and messaged me to not "trust" it.

[hypoh @hypoh]

@CashApp $hypoh #cashappvacay